Percy
by DaXSentimentalXGoth
Summary: Ever since she was a little girl, Sophie has not known a day without Percy, a sadistic poltergeist who thrives on her misery and frustration. She reluctantly tries to befriend him. But she is well aware of his nature as a poltergeist, and it becomes clear that he may never care for her as a true friend would.


**Disclaimer: I do not own Courage the Cowardly Dog or any of it's characters. I do however, own both Sophie and Percy.**

Chapter One

I will never forget the day I first met Percy.

It had been a month after I had turned five years old. My birthday's in august. It was snowing that day. I believe it had been a bit of a snowstorm. Everyone had said it was the earliest snowfall that Kansas had in a long time.

I remember it as if it were only yesterday. I remember how the world was covered in white. I remember the big, fluffy snowflakes that fell from the sky. I remember how warm I felt gazing from within the heated car as we drove to the thrift store.

Little did I realize that this was to be the last time I would ever know peace and quiet. Up until that day I had only known warmth and softness. I had only known of the quiet, peaceful world that I had entered and hardly knew about. I had little to nothing to do but play and silently wonder about the world and how it worked.

It's hard to imagine that I was once living in such a time. It felt like a different life. A different world.

At the thrift store I played in the little toy section, while my mother rummaged through the nearby racks of clothes. Every now and then she would call me over to try on some clothes.

Between each set of shirts, I became attached to three stuffed birds - a cardinal, a macaw and a swan. I begged my mother to please let me have all three of them, as I couldn't bear to part with any of them. I even named two of them in the store. I promised her that I would play with them every single day. She reluctantly consented.

I was kinda spoiled back in the day, being the only child. I was able to get just about anything I wanted with a bit of begging and the never-fail-poor-puppy-dog face.

"This is Swanie," I held up the swan as we drove home, "And the red bird's name is Mac, and the parrot is Paulie!"

My mother smiled at me and my father gave me a distracted reply from behind the wheel.

As engrossed in my new friends as I was, all the way home I kept hearing this soft humming from behind me. The radio wasn't on and neither my parents were talking, let alone humming. I turned to look at the way back, but only saw the cardboard box filled with my parents findings. Eventually I shrugged it off. I did used to hear music in my head when I was very little.

I sat on the couch and watched my parents unpack the cardboard box. My father loaded dishes into the dishwasher while my mother took the tags off my new blouses. The one item that did catch my attention was the sugar bowl that sat on the coffee table.

And this was when everything changed.

It was rather pretty. It had red, blue and green glass gems all over the outside and completely covering the lid.

My mother liked to collect tea sets and fancy dishes and goblets and put them on display in the big glass cupboard in the dining room. This was probably one of the fanciest things in her collection.

Being a lover of shiny colorful things - especially gemstones - I was drawn to it. I crawled over to the coffee table and examined it. Two strips of tape held the lid down and as carefully as I could tried to take the tape off.

"Sweetie, let me do that," my mother said gently, removing the tape herself, for fear of me breaking it I assumed.

I was glad that she took it because if I still held it I would've dropped it.

Something very small and very dark crawled out of the sugar bowl.

At first I thought it was a rat or a mouse. But then the creature unfurled it's self - raising his head, stretching out all four limbs, his tail lashing and wagging about like a peeved cat.

"What's wrong, honey?" My mother asked.

I pointed to the little creature, whose gaze was now fixed on mine.

"That -"

"What?"

I couldn't understand how she could not see him. There he was - in plain sight - right in front of her!

"What am I supposed to be looking at, Sweetie?"

"That!"

"What? Tell me!"

"What is that!" I demanded. The creature blinked at me, curiously, then looked back and forth between me and my mother.

"What is what?" My mother was getting slightly exasperated, "Tell me what you see!"

"Can't you see it?"

"What?"

"That thing!"

"What thing?"

"That black thing!"

"What black thing?"

At this the creatures eyes widened - if that was even possible - and looked back at me.

"I don't see it, honey," she stood up, "Well I'm going to take this to the sink." She picked up the sugar bowl and headed to the kitchen, leaving me and the creature alone.

He looked at me. I looked at him. I had never seen anything like him before.

The way he held himself was similar to a monkey, the way he stood on all fours. He was very gaunt, with a slightly hunched back. His hands were curved into long, deadly looking talons, much like his hind feet. He was clothed in what I could describe were made from tattered shadows, as the fabric of his tunic was neither completely solid nor translucent.

The most prominent feature was of course his face, or rather, his eyes.

They were enormous. They practically took up his whole face. Large pure white pools that were slightly tinged with yellow as if he were somewhat jaundiced. At first I thought he had no pupils. Then I saw the tiny red dots appear in the center of these milky orbs. They were so small that at first I couldn't tell if they were real or if I was imagining them.

The rest of his face was completely obscured in darkness. What looked like black hair framed his narrow face - later I learned that they were feathers, but grew in a way that resembled hair.

All at once, he began to grow. I gasped and backed up against the couch. He was now the size of our barn cat, Pumpkin, maybe larger.

I wasn't sure whether to be frightened of this creature or not. Despite his odd appearance, he didn't look too threatening. Percy did look very sweet when his mouth was closed. And since he wasn't doing anything to suggest he was hostile, I soon found myself curious and eager to talk to this creature.

I gave him a small smile. "Hi," I whispered, "What's your name?"

He didn't reply but continued to stare at me. I thought that maybe he was a little shy, by the way he shrank back ever so slightly.

"Don't be scared," I assured him softly, "I'm not going to hurt you,"

He cocked his head slightly and my little heart beat even faster at the endearing sight.

"I'm Sophie," I told him, "What's your name?"

Up until that point in time, I had never known fear. My parents successfully shielded me away from any scary images. They protected me from any intimidating forces, such as barking dogs or roosters. I had blocked out the thunder by folding my earlobe over my ear canal and pressed my hands to my ears, curled up in the farthest corner of the closet or in my mother's lap until the storm passed. I had painful moments, little bumps and scrapes that I would soon forget afterwards.

But I had no lasting scars or any phobias that constantly plagued my thoughts.

In the five years I had existed on this earth, I had not had any reason to fear or to worry.

The moment Percy grinned at me was the first time I had truly known pure terror.

"Hi Sophie." He said to me, his voice a grating, maniacal whisper. His mouth stretched wide, his smile even larger than his gaze, revealing two rows of crooked stained teeth.

I screamed. Then without warning he lunged, talons out stretched as he leaped at me.

...

What happened afterwards was a blur.

I couldn't explain where the gash in my right cheek came from. To this day, my parents still did not know what really happened.

I was rushed to the emergency room where I had to get stitches. I could not stop crying all throughout that night. Percy watched as the doctors sewed me up, his eyes watching the needle, completely fascinated at the sight.

He assured me he meant no harm. He merely was horsing around. To this day I'm still not pleased at what he did. His idea of a playful tackle nearly took half my face off. He did mention that he wasn't aware how much strength he used, having been used to wrestling with larger more powerful creatures than human beings. And he _was _more careful from then on.

I wouldn't leave my parents side for days after that incident. Every night I slept with them in their bed. But eventually they told me I had to sleep in my own room from now on. I clung to them, begging them to stay one more night, but they assured me that they would keep the light on.

"And besides," my father told me, "You can sleep with your new friends." He held up my stuffed birds. I had forgotten all about them.

Huddled beneath my comforters, I clutched my new friends as I lay alone in bed for the first time in over a week. I was terrified. I remember shaking violently as if I had a fever.

All was silent save for my breathing and the beating of my heart.

Then..he spoke to me from the foot of the bed.

"Hi Sophie! Would you like to play with me?"


End file.
